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Designing an algorithm for swarm behavior using the concept of Umwelt

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Abstract

In this study, we propose a methodology for designing a swarm behavior. The difficulty in designing the swarm behavior is a gap between the object of evaluation and that of design. The former is the performance of a group, but the latter is the action of each individual. We utilize the concept “Umwelt” in ethology for bridging the gap. The advantage of this concept is that all actions necessary for the swarm behavior can he derived from the purpose of each individual. Using this concept, the swarm behavior can he built into the action algorithm of the individuals. In order to evaluate the proposed method, we construct the swarm algorithm for a search and collection task. Using a computer simulation, we confirmed that the swarm successfully achieved the task with flexibility and parallelism, and also robustness in part. These results support the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

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Correspondence to Ryusuke Fujisawa.

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Fujisawa, R., Hashimoto, T. Designing an algorithm for swarm behavior using the concept of Umwelt . Artif Life Robotics 13, 575–584 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-008-0601-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-008-0601-x

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